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L.S., To liberate storage space, I would like to offer the following plant fossils for trade. All specimens below come from the Late Carboniferous of the Piesberg quarry near Osnabrück (Germany). Scale on photographs in centimetres (1 inch = 2.54 cm). Specimens B, C, F and G show neuropterid fronds of various sizes (most likely Laveineopteris rarinervis). Note specimens B and G were recovered broken and have been glued/repaired. Specimen E is a large plate and shows reproductive structures of Calamites (E-1), a Laveineopteris frond (E-2), a strap-like Cordaites leaf, and some Annularia-like leaf whorls. If interested, I could also offer the counterpart of E. If preferable, I can cut specimen F to size (currently large slab of rock for the actual imprint). In general, please note that these specimens are rather large and heavy (I will cover the shipping costs, but you will need space to display these pieces). In return, I would be mainly interested in plant fossils from the Devonian to Cretaceous (but feel free to offer younger material also). Kind regards, Tim Specimen B: Specimen C: Specimen E: Specimen F: Specimen G:

Wanted to share this image I captured on Halloween. Time Warp by Zachary Cava, on Flickr

Dear all, Since it is simply impossible for an individual collector to collect everywhere, trading offers a great method to diversify. Several TFF Members are actively collecting plant fossils and together we cover an almost worldwide range of different localities. Even if you are specializing in a particular area, fossils of equivalent age from elsewhere could prove interesting material for comparison purposes (for example, there are some interesting parallels and differences between the European and North American Pennsylvanian floras). My question is, therefore: is anyone interested in trading plant fossil material? Anyone who had any plant material to offer for trade, or is looking for particular specimens to trade, please chime in! Cheers, Tim

On our recent half day trip to the St. Clair fern pits (Aug 11), we focused mostly on finding fossil fern seeds. All of these seed fossils came from one half-day visit. The isolated fossils were found on pieces of shale we inspected from the many piles strewn around the excavated collecting pits. Those that show both halves came from fragmenting small to medium sized pieces from the cast-off pieces around the pits. This was a time-consuming exercise in patience and involved a certain amount of luck but as you can see, we accomplished our goal which was to collect some well-articulated seed fossils. Most of these are Alethopteris seeds including the best find (1a/1b) that shows both halves of the seed and the seed stem. We're wondering about the "split top" seeds - are these Alethopteris seeds starting to open up, or something else? At least two of these (Seeds 4 and 5) are shapes we can't find in the fossil reference literature. 1a and 1b. Alethopteris seed attached by stem. Our best find was this trigonocarpus (fern seed) showing the stem attached to an Alethopteris sprig. We haven't seen too many seed fossils this well defined including the seed stem and associated fern leaves all attached to the same stem. Update: "Trigonocarpus" is the general name given to fern seeds. Our seed is attached by a short stem to the mid-rib of an Alethopteris fern pinnule. We do not believe this is a coincidence (for example the seed lying on top of a leaf) because it is perpendicular to the frond stem and the attachment is pretty clear on both halves of the fossil. We were fortunate to collect both halves and this specimen is very well articulated. (Nancy actually discovered this by splitting open a fragment that was cast aside at one of the small pits dug by other fossil hunters - we have found a lot of our most exciting and rare fossils by segmenting pieces that are already lying on the ground around this site - of course, there are thousands of fragments so it takes a keen eye, it helps to know how the different structures relate to each other so if there is a cluster of a certain species you know what to look for and where, and always it helps to have some luck. We have emailed our photos to the paleontologists at UC-Berkeley who have an artist's rendition of this seed/attachment on their site (see my post below). They mention on their site that not many attached alethopteris seeds have been found. More photos of this are included in my post below. Unidentified Seed 1a and 1b. This is an isolated fern seed not associated with a specific type of fern leaf. Both halves are shown. It has a distinctive groove in the top. Seed 2. Another isolated fern seed. Seed 3. Another similar fern seed. Seed 4 is a different shape - a round seed with serrated edge. Seed 5 is another different shape that we see frequently although it's usually not very well articulated. Is this a seed or something else? It's always this shape. Seed 6a and 6b are both halves of the same seed and have the same shape (groove at the top) as Seed 1a/1b above. Seed 7 is another isolated seed. Thanks in advance for your opinions!